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Two Michigan Tragedies

Two Michigan Tragedies image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
July
Year
1879
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

From the Frcmont Indicator. A tragedy was enacted in the tovvnsliip of Green wood, Oceana county, last Sunday morning, that for terribly draoaatic details eclipses anything weever lieard of, and will probably for a long time stand alone in the armáis of crime. The f acts are substantially as folio ws: I. II. Cogswell, supervisor of Greenwood, was administrator of the estáte of Joseph Stebbens, and interested parties were wraking to have him removed. The settlement was to take place on Monday, and the probability is that he was "not prepared." He had told some of his neighbors that he would "show the judge of probate a trick with a hole in it ;" and nobody now doubts his word. About three o'clock on Sunday morning he awoke his wife and explained that he was going to kill himself, and wished to kill her also. She objected that she was not prepared to die, andhe Iet the matter drop for a few minutes. He gathered all the papers connected with the Stebbens estáte, a package of money wiiich his wife thinks contained $2,ÖÖO, and all the books belonging to the town in his possession. These he burned in the stove. He then poured kerosene oil on the rloor, beds and f urniture, and started several lires His wife, seeing he could not be deterred from his horrible purpose, made her escape from the house. Cogswell followed her out and urged her to go back and die with him, btit she igain declined the proposition and he attempted no violence. By this time the interior of the house was a sheet of fíame. Flinging her a pocketbook containing money belonging to her, he stepped back into the house, closed the door, and all was over. His neighbors t hink he was perfectly sane. II is bondsmen will have to make good the loss and it will f all heavily upon them. From the Nashville News. A Mts. Burgy, living one and onelialf miles west of Freeport, in the town of Bowne, Kent county, the wife of a highly respected citizen and mother of live children, on Wednesday afternoon last shot dead with a revolver two of her children, and, it is feared, mortally wounded another, the oldest being a boy of 8, the other two, girls, younger. On the morning of the tragedy Mr. Burgy went to hiswork, hayuna, across the river one and one-half miles distant, taking his dinner. During the forenoon Mrs. B, sent her oldest girl, aged 10, to Freeport. The girl returned and the mother sent her agaiii, and when she returned the second time she inissed her little brother and sister and inquired for them. Her mother told her that two of them bad gone to a neighbor's to piek berries. and the other to another neighbor's to piek cherries, and directed the little girl to go to the ganlen and get some radishes for dinner. Dinner was over, but the child obeyed, and as she went, took the babe from the crib, carrying il with her. siie Komi returned to ftnd her mother sitting in tlie rockingchair, a eorpse, with the iinplement of her destruction. i revolver, still clencbed in lier hand. The girl ran to a neiglibor's and in t'rightened, braken accents told the fearful news, wbich spread like wildtire, and people Hocked from every direction to tlie horrible scène. Their feelings can better be iraagined tlian described wlien, upon entering the house, tliey found nol only the mother in tlie condition ilescribed by the daughter, Vut underthe stairway, where tliey feil, the boy and one of thelittle girls, lying across eacli other stone dead, exhibiüng a fearful wound made by a revolver. Up stairs, speechless on the Hoor, was the tliird, a girl, with au ugly wound in the back of the head. How the unfortunate, insane mother obtained the revolver with which to accomplish her own and her children's destruction is a mystery as vet nnsolved. About a year ago Mrs. B. showed signs of insanity, and was sent to Canada, her farmer home. Wlien she returned it was supposed she had recovered, bit within ;i few daya previousto the tragedy showetl signs of returning insanitv.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus